Sabatino Aracu has been re-elected as president of the International Roller Sports Federation (FIRS).
The Italian official has secured a fourth four-year term in office after standing unopposed and will lead FIRS through to the 2020 summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, when skateboarding will make its debut as an Olympic Games sport.
Aracu (pictured) was re-elected at the FIRS Congress in Nanjing, the Chinese city that will host the inaugural World Roller Games later this year. Argentina’s Ricardo Grin will serve as Aracu’s first vice-president after holding off the challenge of Brazil’s Moacyr Neuenschwander Junior.
Aracu said: “It has been a historic Congress, our first Congress as an Olympic federation. The road to Tokyo is very long, but I am confident this team will be able to achieve huge results.”
In June, FIRS awarded its 2019 World Roller Games to Barcelona less than six months after the Catalan city elected to withdraw its hosting rights to the inaugural edition of the multi-discipline event.
The first World Roller Games will now take place in Nanjing in 2017 after Barcelona withdrew its hosting rights in January 2016. FIRS had awarded the event to Barcelona ahead of Lima in Peru at its Congress in February 2015. Lima then secured a series of FIRS events from 2016 to 2020 as well as the 2021 edition of the World Roller Games.
The 2017 World Roller Games was switched to Nanjing after Barcelona’s new political administration withdrew its support. However, FIRS elected to return to the Spanish city in 2019 for a 16-day event that will see more than 6,000 athletes compete across the 10 roller disciplines of artistic, speed, rink hockey, inline hockey, roller freestyle, skateboarding, inline alpine, inline downhill, inline aggressive and roller derby.
